Now that it has been deemed permissible to discuss individual stocks, and so as to avoid "hijacking" the boring thread about the overall stock market volatility, here is where we can discuss our individual investments, our triumphs and our failures.

I will generally post my trades as I make them and occassionally give a snapshot of my main portfolio's performance by listing all my holdings and how they are doing.

Otherwise, suffice it to say, for now, that my fortunes rise and fall with Apple, E*Trade and a host of other stocks, and while I care very much about how the market does overall, it is not as interesting to me as what people actually hold in their portfolios.

You can go to Youtube and learn various basics of trading. But honestly, no one beats the general market with basic trading knowledge.You CAN beat the general market and do so consistently if you apply some critical thinking using both technical and fundamental data that is readily available on most brokerage trading platforms. 99% of the investing public do NOT use either. They rely on news stories, friends and relatives giving "tips", broker giving "recommendations". The 1% (or less) who use technical and fundamental information regularly will have an advantage over the long run. If you think about it, this is what Warren Buffet and Peter Lynch have done. Once you have grasped basic trading knowledge, you should move forward and learn advance trading strategies. If you don't have the will or time, then simply invest in an index ETF or mutual fund. You will outperform the majority of other investors.

Advanced Trading Strategies: The most common and easily understood advanced trading strategy is to find companies with stable or growing Earnings Per Share (EPS) yet a pull back in the stock price. Warren Buffet frequently refers to this situation as the stock of the company being "on sale". This may not appear to be an advanced strategy until you ask yourself "how do I know when the pull back is near a turning point to move back upward?" This is where advanced technical analysis comes into play. Likewise, learning how to apply EPS growth rate versus PE is helpful in anticipating how future EPS results can be a catalyst for upward price movement.

When you look at a price chart, look for the price tops and bottoms where there is an abrupt change in direction. When you think about it, these points of sudden reversal in direction really tell you the tipping point in the supply:demand ratio has clearly flipped. It sounds so obvious and logical. For turning point lows when the stock price suddenly begins to move upward, there was highly likely a large buying demand that was unfilled at the low points of the stock price trading. This relatively large unmet buy demand was countered by relatively small available supply of sellers. THIS is what caused the stock price to move upward so abruptly as more buyers stepped in to buy at higher and higher prices, thus moving the stock price away from the large buying demand that went unmet or unfilled. Advanced trading strategies know how to use this phenomenon for subsequent trading positions.

Some websites that claim to use such analysis (either technical, fundamental, or both) are:www.motleyfool.comwww.optionsforcash.comhttp://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:trading_strategies:john_murphy_s_ten_laws_of_technical_trading

I have stock in an Australian company, Clinuvel, with a drug that provides protection from UV rays by inducing production of melanin, ie, an all over tan. Maybe a little risky, but certainly fun to read about. (ASX: CUV, ADR/Pinksheets: CLVLY) It's been good to me thus far, but the big jump will be if it's approved, which is a big if.

I bought Lehman when it was pink-sheeted, at .04/share, then sold for .22/share. I still own uxg, bought at .60/share, it's now high $2-low $3/share. I love penny stock, just don't find much I am interested in. I also own stock in INFN, HA, PRPX. And my stocks are worth more than what I initially invested, not by much, but still, nowadays....

E*Trade continues to drift downward ahead of the earnings news after today's close. I continue to be as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. This was a stupid gamble I made but I will see it through tomorrow and take my lumps if necessary.

Today I sold the last 340 shares of Apple that I owned. It was a great ride and somehow I think I will buy again when the spirit moves me. It was a rash decision and now I have to find a home for all that cash.

Triumph/Fail: Making deal with devil to not play this game with money I need if...........

Triumph: Wife did not file for divorce, up over 100% from March to make it all back, selling 85% of all taxable accounts and moving money to online savings. Savior stocks were TC, JPM, USB, WFC, KGC, GG (hate all of them now.....thx lucifer!)

DavidScubadiver said: E*Trade continues to drift downward ahead of the earnings news after today's close. I continue to be as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. This was a stupid gamble I made but I will see it through tomorrow and take my lumps if necessary.

Today I sold the last 340 shares of Apple that I owned. It was a great ride and somehow I think I will buy again when the spirit moves me. It was a rash decision and now I have to find a home for all that cash.

I do not know what you mean by fall stabilizes, but I assume we will know more after the bell in terms of whether it is going to surprise with earnings and hopefully start an upward climb instead of going down the toilet.

I've been watching etrade stock for over a year. I think it is a smart buy under $1.5.

Positive news will give it a 25% boost with today's market. Then it slowly will drop. Two bits of positive news a week apart can drive it up 50%. It is that volatile. Negative news doesn't affect it as much. It might drop 10% on negative news. No news will make it slowly fall until it settles around $1.3-$1.4.

I thought the news was slightly positive since "it could have been worse". It might not even drop below 1.45 .

There is also a good chance they get bought out. There are a few companies extremely eager to jump on it if the government insures its debt.

worm690 said: Fail: Investing house down-payment money and being down 50% in March

Triumph/Fail: Making deal with devil to not play this game with money I need if...........

Triumph: Wife did not file for divorce, up over 100% from March to make it all back, selling 85% of all taxable accounts and moving money to online savings. Savior stocks were TC, JPM, USB, WFC, KGC, GG (hate all of them now.....thx lucifer!)

Triumph: Went from $40k Nov 08 to $80k Feb 09 to $190k April 09 playing the long naked call options and leveraged inverse ETFs trading game, initially daytrading part time while working full time.

Bonus: Also met a good girl and had the beginnings of a good relationship start up during that period.

Fail: Laid off in Feb 09 and took up daytrading full time thinking beginners luck will continue with visions of retiring at 25 dancing through my head. Got wiped out persistently trying to chase the short side (Got off the Bull bandwagon way too early in April after a decent run of switching long/short previously) from April 09 to Sep 09 after gradually increasing my brokerage to total net worth allocation from 33% to 100% and escalating my leverage from single inverse EFTs to double to triple inverse ETFs and finally going all in with put options trying to recoup my losses... safe to say all my bets failed miserably... my 190k is down to a 10k.

bonus to the downside: During the downfall of my brokerage account I broke my left arm and tore my right sholder in a snowboard accident a week before my tonsilectomy... thanks to my financial + physical injuries + painkillers I became what I would describe as a depressed insomnaic alcoholic and got dumped to boot for becoming a "perpetual downer."

Lesson: Easy come easy go, though the view from the lowpoint do feel quite dismal after having been so high up. After taking my lumps and recovering from my previous sad state last month by channeling my stress into job hunting, working out, and long hikes I resolve on cutting way back on my risk tolerance profile and avoiding leveraged ETFs and call options henceforth on any future investments (once I am gainfully employed and have cashflow again) along with job hunting in earnest now. Most expensive learning experience for me ever.

Thank god for being young and single with low monthly expenses and Obama's yearlong unemployment/subsidized cobra so I don't have to go crawling back to my parents to beg to move in with them... yet.

Yes like everyone else including me - you live and learn. I started out with 30K in March 2008 after bears stern it quickly became 60K. Then I got greedy and added 210K of my own money which turned into 100K on march 9th yikes..fast forward Sept 23rd my balance was 727K. I almost sold everything and wanted to buy a house but decide what the heck and stayed in the market. I am now at 570K and crying why i did not sell a month ago

Sold Dolby yesterday in my IRA and bought it back today for a buck or so less. Did not have a good reason to sell it, except I had large short term gains and did no want to see the disappear. Since earnings are coming out and it has been a solid performer, I am hopeful!

I feel totally naked having sold my last apple shares though. May have to put some in my IRA...

And can anybody critique my strategy of going long commodities, oil, transport, etc. and going short commercial real estate(retail)? Its about a longer term play (the commercial real estate play will only be until the 1st quarter of 2010 at the latest).

Shorting this market actually looks really tempting. I'm currently long, and it keeps testing that resistance line and bounces off. I personally don't like how many times we have a strong rally then just drop out of no where to the resistance. It looks like it going to crash below it really soon.

Here is my week of earnings plays. 9/12 aint bad at allI am kind of assuming TWTR is worthless now, might try and sell some weeklies against what I have too. WIsh I had went harder into PPC as I felt really good about that play. Too bad I am down overall for the week thanks to oil plummeting. I accidentally bought 100 FCEL aug $1 options too, It was supposed to be 10 but I guess a hit an extra zero. Now I need it to go to rally mode. I do have a plan if oil hits $45 I will be selling off a bunch and buying a crap load of UWTI for the rebound. Maybe UCO to be able to sell covered calls.

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